Pakistan government barred by high court from pardoning Christian condemned to death

The Pakistan High Court barred the Pakistani government on Monday from pardoning a Christian woman sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy.

Lawyer Allah Bakhsh Leghari successfully argued that this pardon is illegal while the case was pending in the courts.

"Since the matter is in the high court, the government cannot now make any move to pardon Bibi," he told Agence France-Presse.

Asia Bibi was sentenced earlier this year to death by hanging for allegedly blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad. The Christian mother of five was arrested in 2009 following an argument with fellow field workers who had refused to drink water from her container because it was touched by a Christian. They argued, but Bibi thought nothing more of the incident until she was dragged away from her house by a group of Muslims who attempted to force her to convert. She refused and was then accused of blasphemy against Mohammed – a charge she categorically denies.

The official charged with investigating these accusations, Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti said he expects her to be cleared because initial findings prove her innocence.

Religious leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, and human rights groups have called for her release but conservative Muslims have threatened anarchy if President Asif Ali Zadari pardons the woman.

In the past, Pakistan’s courts have issued death sentences for blasphemy, but no executions have been carried out. All the death sentences were thrown out upon appeal.

Religion Debate: Hitchens edges Blair

Renowned atheist campaigner Christopher Hitchens and former British prime minister Tony Blair debated each other this weekend about whether religion is a force for good in the world, reports the Christian Post. An opinion poll taken after the debate saw most of the 2 600 audience believe that Hitchens won the debate.

Blair, who is a commited Catholic argued that while religion can be destructive, "it can also create a deep well of compassion, and frequently does."

"It is undoubtedly true that people commit horrific acts of evil in the name of religion," he said. "It is also undoubtedly true that people do acts of extraordinary common good inspired by religion."

Blair reminded the audience of all the good works of faith-based charities and the teachings of various religions to illustrate how people are inspired by their faith to do good.

Jesus teaches loves, selflessness and sacrifice; the prophet Mohammad said saving one life is as if you're saving the whole of humanity; Buddhists subjugate selfish desires to care for others; and Sikhs insist on respect for others of another faith, he argued.

Hitchens the author of ‘God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,’ is suffering final stage esophageal cancer, responded that he knew the topic of charity would come up during the debate.

Hitchens then pointed out that millions of people have died in Africa because of the Catholic Church's stance that "AIDS was not as bad as condoms."

And the destruction carried out in the name of religion outweighs the good that people of faith have done, he indicated.

"Do we grant to Hamas and Hezbollah, both of whom will tell you, and incessantly do, without us, where would the poor of Gaza and Lebanon be, ... it's nothing compared to the harm that they do, but it's a great deal of work all the same," Hitchens said.

Blair agreed that not everything the church or religious communities have done around the world is right.

But he added, "[A]t least accept that there are people doing great work, day in, day out, who genuinely are not prejudiced or bigoted, but are working with people who are afflicted by famine and disease and poverty and they are doing it inspired by their faith."

While making his argument, he noted that he was not claiming that one has to be a person of faith in order to do good work. But, nevertheless, there are people who are inspired by their faith to do good and that should be recognized and celebrated.

Other notable arguments made during the debate:

Hitchens: Once you assume a creator and a plan, it makes us objects, in a cruel experiment, whereby we are created sick, and commanded to be well.

Blair: Imagine indeed a world without religious faith, not just no place of worship, no prayer or scripture but no men or women who because of their faith dedicating their lives to others, showing forgiveness where otherwise they wouldn't, believing through their faith that even the weakest and most powerless have rights, and they have a duty to defend them. And yes, I agree, in a world without religion, the religious fanatics may be gone. But I ask you: Would fanaticism be gone?

Pope and China battle for control

It has taken a while, but the long-brewing battle between the Pope and the Chinese government for control of the Chinese Catholic Church has finally simmered over into the public arena. The centre of the latest contention has been the institution of a new Chinese Catholic bishop without the pope's permission.

The Vatican announced that the Chinese government forced bishops to participate in the ordination of Joseph Guo Jincai, while Beijiing charged the Vatican with interfering with religious liberty in China.

Guo was ordained as bishop on Saturday, the Vatican reported, terming the unauthorized act "a grave violation of Catholic discipline." Apparently, the Vatican has warned China "several times" this year not to make Guo a bishop and that going ahead with the ordination "offends the Holy Father, the Church in China and the universal Church, and further complicates the present pastoral difficulties."

However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei immediately hit back saying the Chinese Catholic Church was independent and that any "intervention" constituted "restriction of freedom and non-tolerance."

The last time that China’s Catholic Church appointed bishops without approval from Rome was in 2006. The Vatican responded by excommunicating those two bishops, and this week threatened to excommunicate both Guo and the bishops who presided over his appointment.

The United States Foreign Department, in it’s annual global report published last week, despite limited praise for Beijing, also expressed grave concern over the reality of religious freedom in China last week in its annual global report on the subject.

The State Department listed China as one of eight countries of "particular concern" on religious freedom accusing the country of the persecution of followers of the Dalai Lama in Tibet and Uyghur Muslims in western China.

Over 50% of UK young people have never heard of the King James Bible

The Authorised King James Version of the Bible will be 400 years old next year, and is believed to be the biggest-selling book ever and to have taken the English language around the world, yet 51% of under-35’s in the UK have never heard of it.

The Bible was prepared as a result of the orders of King James I to unite religious factions and correct flaws and political problems in the existing translations of the time.

The King James also provided the English language with hundreds of well-known phrases like ‘let there be light’ and ‘eat, drink and be merry’, but has dropped out of fashion recently because clergy are more likely to use modern translations.

A spokesman for the King James Bible Trust, which commissioned the poll that uncovered this statistic, stated: “There has been a dramatic drop in knowledge in a generation. Yet this is a work which was far more influential than Shakespeare in the development and spread of English.”

He said the book should be taught by schools in English, history and religious education classes.

Labour MP Frank Field said: “It is not possible to comprehend fully Britain’s historical, linguistic or religious development without an understanding of this great translation.”

One third of Catholics have left church in U.S.

The New York Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan recently raised concerns over the huge numbers of people leaving the Catholic Church in the United States. Dolan quoted studies that found one-third of Americans born and baptized Catholics have left the fold in recent years. The study also showed that only 50 percent of young Catholics marry in church, while Sunday mass attendance had gone down to 35 percent from 78 percent in the 1960s.

The Catholic Church has been embroiled in controversy after controversy over the last few years, with the child abuse scandals and subsequent cover-up attempts rocking the church to its very core.

Dolan admitted that to turn around this mass exodus, the Catholic Church would need to get its house in order but at the same time he stressed that Roman Catholic Church officials would not be gagged on controversial social issues such as abortion, gay marriages and immigration.

Dolan made the comments in his new capacity as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Interestingly enough, Dolan made history in winning because the position normally goes to the incumbent conference vice president. However, the incumbent, Gerald Kicanas, was himself weighed down by criticisms of how he handled the case of a priest accused of molesting more than a dozen boys.

Pakistani Christian woman on death row pardoned

The President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari on Monday granted an official pardon to the first woman, Asia Bibi, to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law.

Bibi has been languishing in prison for the last 18 months but released shortly after the pardon was made official.

“This is the only acceptable outcome to what has been a travesty of justice from the outset,” said Nasir Saeed, coordinator for U.K.-based Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). “Asia Bibi should never have been charged with blasphemy, let alone found guilty and sentenced to death.”

Saeed added, “The ordeal faced by her and her family is unimaginable to most people outside of Pakistan who are largely unaware of the abuse and discrimination faced by the tiny Christian minority there.”

As has already been reported, Bibi was accused of blasphemy against the Muslim Prophet Muhammad by women in her village after she fell into an argument with them. Bibi had been picking fruit with the women and went to fetch water for the group, yet upon returning, the Muslim women refused to drink out of the container because it had been touched by a Christian. They argued and a few days later Bib was dragged from her home, beaten and accused of blaspheming against Islam.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law has become infamous for being used to settle grudges against religious minorities, although this is the first time a woman was sentenced to death under it.

"The blasphemy laws smack in the face of democracy and human rights and only reinforce the notion that Christians and other religious minorities in the country are somehow inferior and less human,” said Saeed of CLAAS in the U.K.

“We are relieved and overjoyed at Asia Bibi’s release but so long as the blasphemy laws remain in place there is no telling when another innocent Christian will face being executed because of something they said.”

World’s biggest Jesus statue unveiled

A small Polish town on Sunday unveiled the world's biggest Jesus statue with a mass attended by approximately 20 000 people.

The statue built in Swiebodzin, western Poland, measures 33 metres in height and sits atop a 17-metre mount, meaning that it surpasses the world renowned Christ sculpture in Rio de Janeiro.

That statue was designed by a local priest, Father Sylwester Zawadzki.

The statue has come in for criticism, however, with some saying it is nothing more than an attempt to attract tourists to the small town. Other Polish people have complained that it is kitsch and a national embarrassment.

Humanists and atheists aggressively challenge religion

A new pro-humanist and anti-God advertising campaign that criticizes the Bible and Christianity has been launched. Christianity is not the only religion that is being aggressively campaigned against, with the Quran also being regularly challenged.

In the advertisements, excerpts from both Christian and Muslim scriptures are cited in a negative light to illustrate the humanist approach on issues like women, homosexuality and war as being better.

In one particular advert, an actor portraying a pastor cites 1 Timothy 2:12 saying, "I do not allow women to teach or have authority over a man. She must be silent." This is then followed by a quote from 19th century freethinker Robert Ingersoll, stating that "the rights of men and women should be equal and sacred" and that "marriage is a perfect partnership." The video clip has been posted on the "Consider Humanism" campaign website.

A Christian apologist at Biola University, Dr. Craig Hazen, responded to this campaign by pointing out that the ads take both the Bible and Quran out of context, and thus don’t present an accurate representation of either religion. Hazen cited Ephesians as an example, saying the Bible is not misogynist but teaches that husbands should love their wives like Christ loved the church.

"Men are supposed to love their wives as Christ loved the church and giving themselves over to death for her," stated Hazen. "That doesn't sound like subjugation but that sounds like deep love anyone would want."

"They are simply assuming the Bible is misogynist and homophobic without doing the careful work that Bible historians do," added the scholar. "They are trying to set the rules for the discussion but they don’t actually want to hear the arguments."

Hazen emphasized that humanists should not interpret the Bible without correct training in reading and understanding it, but he conceded that many Christians were just as biblically illiterate thus creating problems in engaging with advertisements like these.

"Unfortunately, it's effective," commented Hazen. "It's an indictment on general Christian education but it turns out we've got the goods in terms of excellent thinking and response to campaigns like this."

Hazen concluded that it is vital the schools like Biola train more "clear thinking" Christians to defend their faith in the public square.

John Lennox challenges Stephen Hawking on God denial

Renowned Christian mathematician, John Lennox, has taken issue with Stephen Hawking’s recent assertion that the creation of the universe happened without God and has released a book challenging him. Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, and also Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College.

Hawking renewed the science versus faith debate a few months ago when he asserted in his book, The Grand Design, that the law of gravity proves it is unnecessary for a Being to be the cause behind the Big Bang which led to the formation of the universe.

Lennox’s book, God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway?, challenges Hawking’s viewpoints on a number of different fronts.

Lennox is convinced that it is possible to believe in the creation of the universe, and multiuniverses as Hawking believes in, and still believe in God, as he states in an interview with The Times.

“You can have both,” he said. “What’s to stop God creating a multiverse?”

Nor does Lennox believe the Big Bang renders God obsolete but rather that it was a “singularity,” or a moment in time when “God did something special.”

Lennox also related to The Times of his student years at Cambridge University, where he actively sought out students with differing perspectives from the Christian belief his parents taught him and that despite reading carefully the works of atheists such as Bertrand Russell and Camus, he still came to conclude that the beliefs he had been raised with were true.

“I believed then, and I still do believe, that Christianity is falsifiable. It’s not believing in spite of the evidence; it’s believing because of it. In fact, what I discovered at Cambridge was the more I exposed my faith to the opposition, the stronger it held up.”

Lennox also stressed that science would never be able to help people to understand God as a being of love.

“God is a person, not a theory,” he concluded.

Christian teens trained to help prevent anti-gay bullying

A psychology professor has helped put together a new youth curriculum that looks to develop young Christians as leaders in situations where they see others, including gays, being bullied.

Warren Throckmorton is the co-creator of the Gold Rule Pledge – a program that promotes respect and concern toward GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) persons without necessarily compromising personal religious beliefs.

"A middle school student who is bullied daily doesn’t care about religious differences. He needs help,” said Throckmorton, who teaches psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, USA.

Throckmorton affirms that Christians could assist bullied youth if only they followed the golden rule – do unto others as they would do unto you.

“There’s much controversy around homosexuality. There should be no controversy around practicing the golden rule,” he emphasised.

“I’d like to see Christian kids, youth group kids become leaders against bullying.”

Gay bullying has dominated headlines recently after a series of gay youth suicides that have generated tremendous concern.

The five-page Golden Rule Pledge curriculum attempts to address these concerns by designing specific discussion material to be used within church youth groups. For example, teens must participate and pick sides in a skit entitled, “The Freshman in the Lunchroom,” in which a gay student is bullied.

After the skit, the teens then discuss questions such as “What roles should teens take in a situation where someone is getting bullied?” and “Should our helping depend on the reason someone is getting bullied?” and study the biblical accounts of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, and the Samaritan woman at the well. In both accounts, Jesus socializes with people considered social outcasts.

“Jesus transcended groupings,” Throckmorton highlighted. “He didn’t do it with philosophical rhetoric. He transcended them in a very personal way.”

Through the curriculum, Throckmorton said he hopes “to see the elimination of anti-gay name-calling.”

Condemned Pakistani woman to appeal death sentence for 'blasphemy'

People from around the globe were shocked recently when a Pakistani woman, Asia Noreen, was sentenced to death by a judge in the Nankana Sahib district for blasphemy. It is believed the judge was placed under fierce pressure from Muslim extremists to deliver this decision. The verdict was delivered under Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy” statute, which carries a death or life imprisonment sentence, yet research has shown that up to 80 percent of blasphemy charges filed are used to settle personal scores.

Noreen is the first woman to be sentenced to death under this law for allegedly defaming Islam. Among other allegations, Noreen was accused of denying that Muhammad was a prophet.

“How can we expect a Christian to affirm a Muslim belief?” her lawyer, Chaudhry Tahir Shahzad said. He added that he and fellow lawyer Manzoor Qadir had filed an appeal against the verdict in the Lahore High Court.

In an interview with Compass, Asia’s husband, Ashiq Masih, said that his wife has been incarcerated in horrific conditions since June of 2009 after she fell into an argument with fellow field workers in Ittanwali village. These workers were trying to convince her to renounce Christianity and apparently strong words were exchanged. The women told Muslim cleric Muhammad Salim about the June 14 incident, and he filed a case with police on June 19, 2009. On that day (June 19), Masih said, the Muslim women suddenly raised a commotion, accusing Noreen of defaming Muhammad.

“Several Muslim men working in the nearby fields reached the spot and forced their way into our house, where they tortured Asia and the children,” said Masih, who confirmed that his wife is 45 years old and that they have five children – four girls and a boy, the oldest daughter 20.

Police arrived and took his wife into custody, presumably for her own protection, he said.

“They saved Asia’s life, but then later a case was registered against her under Sections 295-B and C [blaspheming the Quran and Muhammad, respectively] at the Nankana police station on the complaint of Muhammad Salim, the local imam [prayer leader] of the village,” he said. “Asia has been convicted on false charges. We have never, ever insulted the prophet Muhammad or the Quran.”

Human rights groups have long been critical of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws as being too easily manipulated to settle grudges or oppress religious minorities. No one has yet been executed for blasphemy in Pakistan, as most are freed on appeal after suffering for years under appalling prison conditions.

Student suicide was my ‘tipping point’ for coming out says pastor

Jim Swilley, the founder and pastor of a megachurch based in Georgia recently told CNN.com that the September suicide of a Rutgers University student was the ‘tipping point’ for his decision to come out of the closet to his congregation.

"For some reason, his situation was kind of the tipping point with me," said Swilley. "There comes a point in your life where you say - how much time do we have left in our lives? Are we going to be authentic or not?"

Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers student of only 18 years of age, threw himself off a bridge after a secretly-taped sexual encounter between him and another man was posted on the internet.

Swilley, who calls himself a bishop, said he has known he is homosexual since childhood, but that he was convinced he would never have the courage to live openly.

Swilley,52, came out after more than 20 years of marriage to his former wife, who continues to work at their church.

"At a certain point, you are who you are," said Swilley, who has four children from two marriages.

He ministers at the Church in the Now, an inter-denominational Christian church in Conyers, Georgia.

"What I told my church is that I was given two things in my life that I didn't ask for... one is the call of God in my life and the other is my orientation. I didn't ever think that those two things could be compatible," Swilley said.

Swilley said that his main concern in sharing his orientation with his community was authenticity, saying that "It's about people being who they are."

Coalition formed to promote Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The Stem Cell Action Coalition for Cures was launched this week by the Genetics Policy Institute in an effort to create support for embryonic stem cell research.

“The way it is designed is for our organizations, and state organizations to have an online presence so that each state organization can use that website to have the information about that state’s fight for stem cell research against unreasonable restrictions,” said GPI Executive Director Bernard Siegel.

GPI details its objective on its website: “Our goal is enlist 1,000,000 people across America and the world.”

In this way, GPI hopes to generate enough “political force” to effect legal, regulatory and funding change in order to promote Stem Center Research into treatments.

“Once you have the strength of those numbers of disease groups or science groups or scientific societies behind you, suddenly you have a different sort of voice in Washington [D.C.],” Siegel explained.

Many Christian medical professionals don’t support embryonic stem cell research because of moral and ethical reservations and instead promote advancement in adult stem cell research.

A few weeks ago Christian Medical Association CEO Dr. David Stevens paid tribute to Children’s Hospital researchers for their development of safe alternatives human embryonic stem cells using RNA.

“This breakthrough validates many other significant proofs of the therapeutic promise of induced pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells,” declared Steven.

However, they remain decisively against the use of embryos to supply embryonic stem cells. “The end doesn’t justify the means,” CMA Vice President Gene Rudd has argued.

GPI counters CMA’s arguments by saying that current medical advancements are not enough to cure diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or paralysis. It contends that embryonic research opponents are blocking “the great innovations of our time.”

Missionary perishes in attempt to save drowning teenager in Indonesia

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilot and mechanic, Benjamin Uskert, took a group of young people from a local orphanage in Indonesia to the beach on Nov. 7. While they were there, Uskert spied two other youngsters swim too far out and be swept away by a strong current. In an attempt to save them, Uskert was overcome by the waves and current. The missionary was pronounced dead at the scene, along with one of the teenagers he attempted to recover.

"We are profoundly saddened by the loss of our friend and fellow worker in Christ, as well as the young man he was attempting to rescue," said John Boyd, president and chief executive officer of MAF, in a statement.

"Please pray for Ben's wife, Katie, and son, Jeremiah, as well as the other members of the family."

The American missionary graduated Uskert from Purdue University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Technology. He studied further at Trinity Bible College and Moody Bible Institute. Uskert then worked as an aircraft technician and trainer before joining MAF and being sent to Indonesia where he attended language school for nine months before beginning his service in Sumatra.

In 2005, Uskert married Katie Tucker, and their son, Jeremiah, was born in 2007.

MAF was founded in 1945 as a Christian ministry organization that transports missionaries, medical personnel and supplies, performs disaster relief work, and conducts emergency medical evacuations in remote areas. The ministry also provides distance learning services, as well as telecommunications services such as satellite Internet access, high-frequency radios, electronic mail and other wireless systems.

(Image from MAF and shows Benjamin Uskert and his wife Katie Tucker with their son, Jeremiah).

Cholera continues to wreak havoc in Haiti

Health officials have announced that the death toll for Haiti’s cholera outbreak has risen to 544 people.

Thousands are being treated in hospitals across Haiti for severe diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Cholera is an intestinal disease that can be fatal if it is not properly treated through rehydration and antibiotics. Unfortunately, even before the January earthquake devastated Haiti, the infrastructure system was inadequate to offer access to clean water for most Haitians. Nor is medical treatment readily available for large sections of the population.

The situation has been further worsened by Hurricane Tomas, which brought extremely heavy rains last week, and has raised fears that the disease could worsen. Cholera spreads through contaminated water and the hurricane resulted in flooding and mudslides in some areas.

Health authorities have also confirmed that cholera has now spread to the capital Port-au-Prince; endangering the 2.5 to 3 million who live in close proximity to each other there. There are at least another 114 suspected cases of cholera in Port-au-Prince being tested.

Compassion International, which has worked in Haiti since 1968, has child development centers that are providing purified water, water sanitation tablets and water filtration systems to the Compassion-assisted children and their families.

“Without access to clean water, inexpensive medical treatments and basic education, the poor in Haiti as well as other countries will continue to suffer and die needlessly from survivable disease,” wrote Mark Hanlon, senior vice president of Compassion U.S., in a recent column. “The only way to effectively beat these ancient enemies that prey on the poor is to defeat poverty.”

Meanwhile, Water Missions International, an engineering relief and development Christian nonprofit, recently sent 20 water treatment systems to Haiti. Each water treatment system can be set up and operational within two hours and provide 5,000 Haitians with their daily water needs for less than a penny per person per day. The water systems being sent will provide 100,000 Haitians with access to sustainable, safe water.

“We have to remember that hundreds of thousands of Haitians are living under pieces of plastic and even small winds could be devastating,” said George Greene III, Water Missions International founder. “The potential for a significant cholera outbreak in these conditions multiplies.”

Water Missions International has previously sent 115 water treatment systems to Haiti. The organization installed 10 additional systems in October in response to the cholera outbreak, providing 50,000 more people in the Artibonite Valley with safe water.

(Image from Water Missions International).

Anglican Bishops move across to Catholic Church

Five different conservative Catholic Bishops have moved out of the Church of England and into the Catholic Church. In a statement on Monday by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, the move was confirmed and the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Burnham, the Bishop of Richborough, the Rt. Rev. Keith Newton, the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt. Rev. John Broadhurst, and retired bishops Edwin Barnes and David Silk were all officially welcomed into the Catholic fold.

In response to the statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said he accepted the latest resignations “with regret.”

Pope Benedict XVI made it possible last year for Anglicans who were discontent with plans in the Church of England to allow the consecration of woman bishops. The Anglican clergy will be allowed to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving their Anglican traditions – including married priests. The pope issued an apostolic constitution, providing Vatican guidelines for disaffected Anglicans to enter their fold.

(Image is of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams).

Billy Graham turns 92

The world’s most famous evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham, turned 92 on Sunday. At his birthday celebrations, Graham said that despite his advanced age, he was “still looking for ways to serve the Lord.”

“I am amazed every time I think of how many years the Lord has given me on this earth,” Graham stated. “I am grateful for His blessing on our ministry for more than six decades, but wonder if there is something more He has for me to accomplish.”

Graham is currently writing a book on the aging process from his home in North Carolina.

He is also constantly sought out by Christian and political leaders. Over the last year he has been visited by President Barak Obama and Republican conservative Sarah Palin.

It is believed that Graham has spoken face-to-face with more people in more places than anyone in history, preaching to over 210 million people in over 185 countries.

High-level Christian and Muslim leaders unite to condemn attack on Baghdad church

The high-level Christian and Muslim leaders meeting in Geneva that was reported on yesterday by ‘So What’, have issued a joint statement condemning the deadly attack against the Catholic church in downtown Baghdad.

The leaders are currently attending the consultation on “Transforming Communities: Christians and Muslim Building a Common Future” said they “condemn this inhumane act that contradicts all religious teachings, and Middle Eastern culture that enabled people to coexist peacefully for many centuries.”

The World Council of Churches (which is hosting this event), Pope Benedict XVI, and Muslims in Egypt have all separately denounced the attack already, while this joint statement represents the collective voice of all participants at the consultation, including: His Royal Highness, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan; Dr. Muhammad Ahmed Al-Sharif, general secretary of the World Islamic Call Society; the World Council of Churches; and representatives of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant Evangelical and Pentecostal traditions.

The group called on “the United Nations and its Security Council and all groups that call for just peace, and especially Iraqi officials, to intervene to put an end to all terrorist attacks aimed at degrading Iraqi people, irrespective of their religious affiliation, and defiling Christian and Islamic sacred places.”

The Islamic State of Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday at the Our Lady of Najat church that killed 58 people, including three priests.

While violence is raging in Iraq between Christians and Muslims, leaders of the two religious groups are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Ecumenical Center to work on how to live and work harmoniously together.

(Image is of participants in the Christian-Muslim consultation, taken from the WCC site).

Christians and Muslims in historic meeting to build unity

High-level Christian and Muslim leaders have gathered in Geneva for a crucial interfaith dialogue in attempts to build strong and sustainable relationships between the two groups. The meetings will also focus on how faith communities can use their common resources to transform their communities.

The four-day event is titled, “Transforming Communities: Christians and Muslims Building a Common Future,” and was inspired by the historic 2007 letter by 138 Muslim scholars called, “A Common Word.”

Dr. Muhammad Ahmed Al-Sharif, general secretary of the World Islamic Call Society, and His Royal Highness, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan, the initiator of the letter, are both in attendance at the event which is being hosted at the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Center.

“The central theme of our conference affirms that dialogue is important but that we also need to address issues of common concern and act together – putting the common good at the heart of our joint initiative so as to promote ‘dialogue in action,” said the general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, in his welcome address on Monday.

There are four challenges facing Muslim-Christian communities Tveit identified as being crucial: how to build a wider sense of the understanding of the word “we” that focuses on everyone being part of one humanity rather than excluding people; how to build strong and sustainable relationships between Muslim and Christian leaders that prevent crises and address challenges together; how to transform communities through wise use of spiritual and religious resources; and how to build good and peaceful relationships between Christians and Muslims.

“My strong belief is that we are called together to become peacemakers, respecting the will of our Creator and our Creator’s love for the entire creation,” said the WCC head.

“It is our task to make sure that religion is not a synonym with conflict in the eyes of people, but a synonym for justice and peace.”

In a response address he delivered, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan noted that while Muslims and Christians do not share the same theology, they are “all in the same boat.” The prince, who serves as personal envoy and special adviser to King Abdullah II of Jordan, said people of faith face the same problems and opportunities. He highlighted, as in the “Common Word” document, that Christians and Muslims share the common commitment to love God and love one’s neighbor.

Prince Ghazi added “for both our religions harming religious minorities among us is evil, is absolutely forbidden and is ultimately a rejection of God’s love and a crime against God Himself.”

The prince did not hesitate to point out that while Christians are “clearly severely oppressed” by Muslims in countries such as Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan, there are places where Muslims are oppressed by Christians, such as in the Philippines. There are also places where it is not clear who is oppressing who, such as along the Muslim-Christian “fault line” in Sub-Sahara Africa.

“It should be possible in most of these cases to know and agree on what and who is wrong, and what must be said and done,” said Ghazi. “This, God willing, will be the substance of the deliberations taking place here over the next three days.”

The “Transforming Communities” consultation was joined by representatives of Christian world communions, including the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant Evangelical and Pentecostal traditions.

A joint statement will be issued at the end of the consultation on Nov. 4.

'Cryo kids' more likely to suffer from isolation and depression

They are known as the “cryo kids” – children who were deliberately conceived through anonymously donated, cryogenically frozen sperm. Recently, a special study from the Commission on Parenthood's Future found that “cryo kids” are more likely to suffer from isolation and depression, and are roughly twice as likely as biological children to struggle with substance abuse.

Many find themselves desperate to somehow connect with their roots, and in particular, find their fathers, but these “cryo kids” whose conception fulfilled a biological desire for their mothers, now find themselves shut out from their own biological desires to know their heredity. This is because such a search is almost possible since agencies promise sperm donors complete anonymity.

"There is a whole generation of us out there now," says Kathleen LaBounty, whose parents chose artificial insemination with donor sperm when they discovered her father was infertile.

Both her parents are supportive of her quest.

"My mother saw the sperm donation as a medical treatment. She never considered the implications of how I would feel," LaBounty said from Houston, where she is a research counsellor at Baylor University in Texas.

She said she feels incomplete, curious and angry — but not angry at her parents. She's frustrated with medical and legal systems that don't support, or understand, the needs of donor children.

"I couldn't get records from the clinic where I was conceived."

She said it's unfair that decisions about information concerning her — and others conceived the same way — are made by everybody but her.

"It seems like society recognizes women's biological desires, but not ours," LaBounty said.

Vancouver adoption counsellor Lee Crawford said the preoccupation with solving the mystery is natural, and keeping information about children's biological origins away from them can be destructive. "That mystery takes up our time, we can become preoccupied, obsessed. We can't settle that internal sense of who we are."

She said it is inhumane to bar human beings from knowing their origins.

To live with the feeling of a missing link is psychologically distressing, she said.

"It transcends personality. It's a human need to know where the origins of the story are," Crawford said. "Nobody is thinking about these children that grow into teens, that grow into young adults living with that mystery."

Baghdad church attack leaves dozens of worshippers killed

In a horrific attack, over 40 Christian worshipers and seven Iraqi commandos were killed on Sunday in an attack on a Catholic church in the upscale Karrada neighbourhood in central Baghdad, reports the Washington Times.

About 20 minutes after Sunday Mass began at the Our Lady of Salvation Church, worshippers first heard shots and explosions. One of the priests, Father Wassem Sabeeh immediately began showing frightened worshippers into a fortified room in the rear of the church.

"We realized these explosions were close," said Bassam Sami, 21, one of the survivors of. "Father Wassem started pushing people inside the room."

After they had entered the church building, the silent attackers began executing people. "They were well trained," Sami said. "They didn't say anything. It was like someone had cut out their tongues."

Sabeeh, the priest, was among the first people executed after the assailants got inside. Another priest, Thaer Abdullah, was also killed.

Approximately 60 parishioners were clustered in the safe room, praying and crying, when one of the assailants threw a grenade inside, Sami said.

"There was unbelievable fear among the people," he said. "I cannot describe what we've been through."

After they realized that hostages had been executed, a team of U.S.-trained Iraqi commandos stormed into the church from all sides. At least five suicide bombers detonated explosives, killing seven of the troops.

The bloodshed that unfolded has horrified a city that has seen more than its fair share of atrocities. Many believe that al-Qaeda was responsible for the massacre, and indeed in a statement posted on the Internet early Monday, the Islamic State of Iraq, a front group for al-Qaeda in Iraq, asserted responsibility for the attack.

Hilary Swank visits Prison Fellowship

Double Academy Award winner Hilary Swank recently visited the well-known Christian prison ministry, Prison Fellowship, to talk about her new movie “Conviction” and the role faith can play in fighting injustice.

“I've met 12 other exonerees since the movie has come out,” she told The Washington Post ahead of this discussion. “And all of them talk about having found faith in prison, that it was what got them through their ordeal and the circumstances.”

“I have seen how important faith can be in helping prisoners through difficult times. I wanted to share the movie with churches to remind them of the important role they play in reforming our justice system and helping prisoners and their families,” she said.

Swank executive produced and stars in “Conviction,” which is based on the true story of Betty Anne Waters and the case of her brother, Kenneth Waters, who was convicted and sentenced to life in 1983 for murder. Betty Anne dedicated more that 18 years of her life in the fight to clear her brother’s name and prove his innocence. Since she did not have a high school diploma it took her that long to qualify as a lawyer.

“Conviction” exposes the flaws in the criminal justice system and the love between siblings.

Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship, who hosted Thursday’s panel discussion with Swank commented, “The issue of wrongful convictions needs the urgent attention of our communities, churches, government and policy makers.”

“For every person who has been falsely convicted,” he added, “there is a guilty person who is walking the streets of our communities as a free citizen – that is a serious threat to all of us.

“We are delighted that Ms. Swank used her talents to interpret this poignant story that so brilliantly underscores the devastation that wrongful convictions cause.”
During the discussion itself, Swank said the movie was a reminder of “how quick we are to judge.”

(Image is of Hilary Swank at the premiere of Conviction).